A carved statue on a wall, about 50 cm tall (less than 24 “)I’ve no idea what uniform this is – looks a bit like a cross between Spanish 16th century and the Swiss Guard…and I have no idea of why it was where it was or how old it was.
5
…I find it increasingly difficult to see a reasonable recent photo of myself. After all, there is considerably less attractive material to work with as the years go by.
Here, however, are a couple of not bad ones at the opening of the most recent Rimbun Dahan Art Exhibition last weekend, taken by Bilqis Hijjas.
Above: Self with the organiser of the residency, Angela Hijjas
Above: Self with the organiser of the residency, Angela Hijjas
And with another fellow Australian, Pam Bakhtiar.
I fell in love with the botanical work of one of the artists, Lauren Black. Take a look at the links above…
I wish I had the money to buy a couple. But alas, they are about the same price as I get in advance for a trilogy.
Below: beginning the process – measuring the design squares etc
Below: Putting on the hot wax for small delicate designs. Note the pots of hot wax over flame on the floor
Below:A close up
Below: For bolder areas of design, a table layout and brush are used for applying the wax resist
Or copper stamps
Below: Weighing out the colour to make the dye
Below: Applying the dye
Below: Hanging out the cloth to dry in between treatments. Note the bamboo
Below background: the fire for heating the wax. Foreground – correcting the mistakes i.e. removing any wax in the wrong place and reapplying before dyeing
Below: buying the finished product
I am reading Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama at the moment, and I must say I am impressed. A politician who would make a good novelist? Who talks honestly about his past? This is very good book, and was obviously a good book long before anyone knew where Mr Obama was going.
And it is soooooooo nice to know we have someone in the White House – who will impact my life whether I like it or not – with some intelligence and integrity. Ok, so maybe the integrity will develop a few cracks as present day democracy and politics make their demands. There will be evil compromises, because that’s the nature of the beasts we have unleashed on the world with our lifestyles and economic structures and power plays and overpopulation and greed. But at least one gains the impression that this is at least a man who will think seriously about the moral implications of what he does. And that is a change.
Last weekend we went to see Valkyrie. And once again I was impressed. I expected to see lots of Hollywood and Cruise smiles, and mashed facts in the interest of drama. Instead I saw what appeared to me to be a good cinematic representation of a slice of history. It has been a while since I studied and taught that period of history, but I thought it amazingly accurate considering the time limitations and the medium and the number of people involved.
I did read one review that criticised it for not including a better overall picture of the larger context, and another that sneered about a portrayal of all those good nazis being a whitewash of history. Unfair criticism, I feel. This wasn’t a movie about the Second World War or the Nazis or the Holocaust or Hitler. It was a movie about a plot to kill Hitler, how it was conceived and why it failed. It centred on one character, Stauffenberg, played well by Cruise.
My one criticism was that somehow it missed out being gut-wrenchingly poignant and I can’t put my finger on quite why. I went in expecting to come out sniffing, and came out dry-eyed.
And here’s something you may not know. One of those involved in earlier plots, and who went to Ravensbruck as a result of trying to help a friend involved in this one, was a man called Peter Bielenberg. His wife, Christabel, was British and she wrote a remarkable book about the experience of living in Germany from 1935 until after the war. Even more remarkably, she was instrumental in getting her husband out of Ravensbruck. Quite a story.
I have just had some nice news: in Australia, both When a wannabe-published writer reads the stats (only between 1-5 of every 5,000 completed MSS gets published by a respectable publisher), they start to despair.
But then you realise that most of the submitted MSS deserve to get turned down, or their authors deserve to get turned down – and you can feel a bit more cheerful. Or at least you can if you are a sensible writer who is professional about your submissions and your writing.
How do I know most deserve what they get? Read here (via) or here (via) for a start.
The truth is that most wannabes, having spent hours, days, years, on an MS, can’t be bothered to take a few minutes to read the submission guidelines for an agent or publisher. Instant fail, deservedly so.
Same if they don’t know how a MS should look when you submit it. No excuse for this, not nowadays. Even I, in pre-internet days in a small developing nation, could find out this much.
Says Malaysian editor, Eric Forbes, “Most of the typescripts I receive are not only badly written but lack content or substance.”
In the first link above, Colleen Lindsay, literary agent, lists the reasons she rejected 20 MSS, which boils down to:
About half of them had not read the submission guidelines, or had ignored them, and therefore did not meet her requirements. You don’t attach something to an email if the recipient asks you not to, for a start. Oh, and don’t forget to spell the name of the agent correctly, ok?
Of the other 10:
5 didn’t actually write a query. They waffled on about other things.
1 was rejected on the lousy writing of the sample pages.
1 sent mutiple submissions to other agents (a no-no).
1 wrote a YA novel which is even longer than my current fantasy for adults. Nothing says “clueless” better than that.
….and two were good enough but not what she was looking for. One of those was referred elsewhere, the other was asked to submit other work if she has any.
And what is my advice for those of you who do all the right things and still get rejected? Well, if you are sure your writing is up to par because plenty of critical, non-family members (preferably people who do a lot of writing and/or reading of the genre you are writing in themselves) have told you so:
1. Keep sending out.
2. Start writing something else.
3. If you receive any kind of feedback, then rewrite and try with a new version.
My own feeling is that lots of writers get too hung up on perfecting their very first finished novel. Well, you know what? Not too many first novels actually get published. I’ll make a complete stab in the dark and say that half or more successful established writers have early novels (quite possibly more than one) stashed away on top of their wardrobes. I have eight. (Ok, my first finished book was written aged 12, so I started early.)
Writing is a process. You get better as you go along.
Today’s paper was full of amazing stuff.
In Saudi Arabia they apparently believe that St Valentine’s day is not just silly commercial hype originating in the US aimed at trying to sell stuff to a gullible public buying into the idea.
In fact in Saudi Arabia, the day has been so imbued with evil, it is banned altogether. Right down to not being able to wear red, or buy anything red (including roses) for several days ahead.
When I was at the dating age in Australia, by the way, Valentine’s Day was pretty much unheard of, or dismissed as terribly American and a bit suspect, like Halloween. I don’t remember that I ever received a Valentine, or was taken out to dinner on Valentine’s Day, or given a red teddy bear or whatever the hyped thing was back then. I probably would have been terribly puzzled if I had, and thought the guy was a bit daft.
Second news item that caught my eye: This is about a man hexing other men to have affairs with him and persuading them to hand over lots of money to him.
One fellow called Murad said he met the man at a supermarket last year and “The weirdest part was that my feelings for my wife and my love for my children disappeared. All I could think of was the man,” said Murad. He even gave his new lover a few hectares of his land and RM2,000 monthly pocket money.
He is now working to save his marriage.
Aha! there we have the crux. What do you tell your wife when she finds out a) you’re gay or bi, b) you’re having an affair, and c) you’re really, really stupid?
That you were hexed!
The third item was somewhat similar. What got me about this con man – who sold armulets to a gullible fellow for large amounts of money telling him they were real jewels – was that he told the victim that his name was Superman. Now wouldn’t that make you just a leetle suspicious?
Happy Valentine’s Day!
The writing goes on, in case you are wondering.
The first one third has gone out to beta readers, and two people (I love you both) have returned with feedback. The next one third is just about ready for beta reading too.
My own feeling is that this Book 2 is not nearly the mess Book 1 was at the same stage. It needs work, yes, but not the thorough structural overhaul that Book 1 did.
I have had a look at roughs for the Australian cover, and I hear the copy edit for Book 1 will be winging its way back to me soon. Wow, it’s beginning to feel that I have a book coming out this year! Tentative date for release is September 3rd.
The only thing that is not yet totally settled on is…
…wait for it…
The Title.
So far the photos have been of the square levels. Then you come to the top levels, the round ones, and here you find the stupa. In each of these, there is – or was – a statue of Buddha. Some are now broken or missing.
They are, of course, very holy to Buddhists – but some people don’t treat them that way. Witness the guy below sitting on one, smoking a cigarette and using a handphone.
Below are pictures of what one looks like on the inside.
And here is one that is missing its “roof”.
He gazes at the volcano.
Buddhists – and many non-Buddhists – think it is good luck to touch the statue inside a stupa. And very good luck to touch every statue!
Which is not so easy…
As you walk around any of the square levels of the structure, the walls on either side are carved like this.
Many of these portray incidents in the life a Buddha.
As each level is smaller than the one below, there is nothing overhead. You are out in the sun, and you can see the scenery around you as well.